It's been a pile of days since I posted, sorry.
I've been doing this and that. I am ungrounded again, and in fact have been flying somewhat regularly, including on New year's Day, for my 26th annual NYD flight. Here and there, I've been working on the kit plane too.
Incidentally some friends asked me a while ago, what I call it. They were expecting an airplane name and were disappointed when I told them I call it "the kit plane." But it does differentiate it from my C180.
The EGT and CHT wires are now terminated and connected. They aren’t pretty. The connections, 1/4” Faston, male and female, are relatively huge. They would work better on a larger plane, like any of the other RVs or perhaps a DC-6. I think it would be better to use Dsub pins with shrink tube over them, and might call Dynon to see if I can do that. Maybe. Sometimes I get lazy and they are probably understaffed for the holiday… Maybe. But as of early February, I still haven't.
I decided to give the plane a holiday gift this year, so it’s getting a GPS-2020. I’d been holding off on that because I could install it anytime, but creeping price increases drove me to it. When it arrived, I poked among my parts bins and found a bin that had screws that fit and exactly enough of them. The antenna is now physically installed in the mount that I’d built a few years ago under the canopy on the back fuselage top. We're looking at the back of the canopy and frame, which are open, and the top of the fuselage under it. (Extra credit question below for observant readers). The GPS antenna's screws dropped right into the fitting I'd made for it a long time ago.
The GPS has more than plenty of wire. The Dynon Skyview EFIS connector also has a few feet of wire. All in all, I believe I have enough wire for the task and maybe another couple of airplanes too. I had expected that I’d attach it to the back of the baggage bulkhead, passing the wires through a grommet, around the periphery down to the bottom and thence forward. A minor impediment arose: I can no longer physically get to that location, at least not easily. Another impediment: the cockpit work platform I’d made no longer fits in, because the flap control lever is in the way. This is honestly the only reason I can possibly imagine for electric flaps.
Still, since I can’t use it to get to the baggage area, it’s moot.
I made four tabs and glued them to the seat bulkhead and laced the wires to those. Running the wires up to the EFIS’s 37-pin connector took two new holes, drilled carefully so as not to ruin existing wires, some swearing, some stretching and then the wires were in place.
I was faced with either removing the wires that came with the 37-pin connector and installing these, or splicing them to these. I elected to do that, using the Dsub pins as described above.
Done.
After some other wiring bits that needed doing, it was time to install the engine’s breather hose. I had the breather hose that Van’s sells and could not figure out how to possibly fit it in the tight, busy FWF area. Then it occurred to me to reverse the how end to end, and with a tiny bit of trimming, it fits just fine. A surprise. I even had the hose clamps for both ends. I still need to install the breathers drop tube and that’ll require yet another purchase. Pending.
The GRT Hall effect current sensor was next. Its wires were neatly coiled up on the avionics shelf waiting for some love and attention, which they certainly no longer expected. I attached the black ground wire to the ground FOT and the green sense wire went to the EMS37 pin 22. The blue power wire still needs attaching to the white and red 5V sensor power supply line. These took me a little time, mostly because life, which seems to be interfering more and more these days, got in the way. But eventually these, too, got connected.
A bit ago, I’d wrapped some of the ignition leads in that self-adhering tape. It protected them against chafe in the tiny FWF space. Turns out that’s a no-no, so I recently unwrapped them. I’m in the middle of re-doing them.
I like to use that black lacing to tie up wires. I had a left-over roll from when I was in the military more than 50 years ago. Unfortunately it accidentally got thrown in the trash one sad day and I had to buy another. Remembering how I disliked the feel of the wax, I bought a different kind.... and didn't care for that at all. So I had to buy another roll of the waxed kind. Probably enough for another 100+ years. Good news is that the new waxed lace doesn't spread its stickiness around like the old stuff did.
Dave
P.S. Did you notice the canopy's third latch tube extending aft? It's between the canopy and frame. The eye of the eyebolt pokes through the oval hole in the frame and the latch tube slides right into it. If you noticed those details, good for you! Extra credit.
